Last week, citizens in Basel-Stadt canton started voting in a referendum to validate or cancel the canton’s public funding for Eurovision 2025. The results should be revealed next Sunday, on November 24. Although the vote is likely to confirm the funding, democracy can be full of surprises. In this article, we look at what could happen if the people of Basel refused to finance the contest in their city.
But first, if you don’t remember why a referendum is taking place, and why the result will likely be in favour of Eurovision, you can take a look at our guide from last week.
Now, let us assume that after all the votes are counted next Sunday, the “No” wins. What would it mean for Eurovision 2025? And how can past event — in Eurovision but also in other events like the Olympics — help us imagine the contingency plans for this eventuality?
The direct consequences – and what the officials say
The first consequence of a victory of the “No” would be the repeal of the Basel-Stadt’s Grand Council decision to spend up to 37m CHF to host the contest in Basel. This spending, as we explained in our detailed article on the budget plans in early September, would mainly fund the renting of the arena, the organisation of additional Eurovision events (Eurovision Street, Arena Plus, etc.), the general rebranding and re-decorating of the city of Basel and the security costs.
Some of this funding could come from other sources, such as private sponsors, the federal state of Switzerland (the “Confederation”), Swiss broadcaster SRG SSR and participating broadcasters, etc. But it would clearly not amount to the 34-37 millions of Swiss Francs of planned expenditures.
The official referendum campaign states the following about the consequences of the “No” :
The canton and SRG [the Swiss broadcaster] will analyse the next steps in November and consider the ways and to which extent the contest can still take place in Basel under these conditions. SRG has already publicly stated that, in the worst case, the contest should be reduced considerably. The event would then be reduced to a large TV show on Saturday evening, without side events, and thus with much less added value for the canton of Basel-Stadt. In the event of a no to the ESC, SRG would also have the opportunity to terminate the contract with Basel-Stadt as a stronger measure.
Basel-Stadt official campaign on the ESC 2025 referendum
The possibility of a “considerably reduced event” – a “JESC” or “Rotterdam” scenario?
The campaign’s official description takes its source in the words of SRG SSR’s spokesperson, Edi Estermann, who stated that Basel and SRG SSR “are determined to proceed unless absolutely necessary”, despite the contractual possibility for SRG SSR to change the host city.
But what would a “considerably reduced event” entail? Two scenarios come into mind: a JESC scenario, and a Rotterdam scenario.
The JESC scenario: a one-night event?
SRG SSR’s statement clearly states that a cut in the funding would mean reducing the contest to “a large TV show on Saturday evening, without side events”. Taken to the extreme, could this mean cutting the semi-finals?
This is extremely unlikely, as the semi-finals are part of the rules of the contest and are not something a host broadcaster has much influence on. This would mean finding another way to cut the number of participants from almost 40 to 26 to fit in the unique Grand Final, and changing the rules mid-season, something other broadcasters would not accept.
This could save money on the venue (which is the biggest expense), which could be rented for a much shorter time, as it happens in Junior Eurovision. But this would also cut at least two thirds of the ticket-selling Eurovision shows (assuming the contest would keep its evening preview on Friday and its afternoon preview on Saturday, two dress rehearsals open to the public, with less expensive tickets than the actual show), and almost the same proportion in revenue.
This seems the most unlikely scenario, with very little chance of the EBU or other broadcasters accepting such a drastic change only a few months before the events. Hence our second scenario: “Rotterdam”.
EDIT November 21st 2024 – Since the publication of this article, Edi Estermann and some Eurovision heads of delegation confirmed to community medias that there were no plans to drop the semi-finals if the “No” wins the referendum.
The Rotterdam scenario: no festival in Basel
SRG SSR’s full statement does not just mention “a large TV show on Saturday”, it also adds that such a show would take place “without side events”.
Eurovision is not just nine concerts in an arena. For years now, it has been a city-wide festival, with events organised in areas that have become familiar to fans, such as the Eurovillage, the Eurovision Café, or Euroclub. Moreover, a pattern has been developing since 2020 regarding host cities: Rotterdam, Turin, Liverpool, Malmö and Basel are all regional hubs but not capital cities, where Eurovision has been able to be, for a week, the main event that no one could miss. Their scale is ideal for the contest, which does not have the impact of events like the FIFA World Cup or the Olympics (which is the only event that could truly take over cities like London or Paris, as we experienced in 2024).
Basel already has plans to host the classic Eurovillage and Euroclub (in the same facilities, the Messe Exhibition Center), as well as other new locations such as a Eurovision Street, a Eurovision boulevard, and a stage for local bands in Barfüsserplatz. The organisers are actively seeking artists from the city and Switzerland to perform in these “festival-like” events. A cut to the funding would mean the end of this entire side of the event.
On a purely financial aspect, it would actually cut through a lot of different expenses: some of the “Extra Eurovision events” category would disappear, but also most of the security necessary for these events (“Security”), volunteers to staff them (mainly part of the “City” category), as well as most of the visual branding in the city (like tramways being repainted, posters, etc., which would also fall into the “City” category).
This would look a bit like the Rotterdam 2021 experience, where most of the side events were either cancelled or made virtual in the midst of the Covid pandemic, when the EBU and Dutch broadcasters NOS, NPO and AVROTROS were planning to host with four different scenarios in mind, from “Business as usual” (Scenario A) to a fully remote contest (Scenario D).
The difference, of course, is that Eurovision 2021 had to do so for health and safety reasons, and that a lot of what could not take place onsite during the contest (under what was, eventually, scenario B) was eventually made virtual, with some costs associated to that change too. And even then, the show went ahead as planned, with semi-finals, am audience (reduced, though, for health and safety reasons), etc.
The costs of such an event would still be important, and although it is more likely to happen than a “one-show” Eurovision, it naturally leads to the obvious question: should Basel refuse to pay, why should it host the contest?
The struggle for a Swiss alternative
The end of Basel’s dreams would not automatically mean the end of Switzerland hosting the contest. The contract between the broadcaster and the canton would be cancelled, leaving SRG SSR with the responsibility to host the contest elsewhere. The first logical move would be to find another host in Switzerland.
This, however, would prove difficult. Logically, only cities that took part in the bidding process would be interested (a city that did not consider hosting with 12 months to prepare would be hard-pressed to do so with half that time left). And then, what could justify SRG SSR hosting the contests in cities that failed to push their bids to the final round? This would only leave one candidate: Geneva.
Geneva, however, having lost the bidding process, has moved on. The Palexpo, the venue that would have hosted the shows during the contest, is already booked by a jewellery exhibition during the weekend of the last rehearsals. Moreover, a lot of bookings and ressources that were put on hold until the host reveal would have now been redirected elsewhere. And the contest could again be the victim of a hostile referendum, bolstered by the unlikely victory of the “No” in Basel, but with even less time to change plans.
So, if SRG cannot host in Switzerland, Eurovision would have to go elsewhere. With, or without SRG SSR, the EBU would need to find an alternative host country, very fast.
[This article continues on the next page.]
